Chief minister Oommen Chandy allegedly “interfered” in the probe into the bar bribery scandal involving Kerala Finance Minister and key Congress ally K M Mani. The investigation, based on government records and interviews with key officials, shows that the state Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, the agency in charge of the probe, watered down its final report and gave a clean chit to Mani.

This report, submitted to the Vigilance court in July 2015, was rejected last month by the Vigilance court which criticized the bureau for not filing a charge-sheet against Mani and asked for “further investigation.” Today, the Kerala High Court upheld the Vigilance court’s decision.